California shop uses holiday programs to give back to local community

Jan. 27, 2016
One California body shop continues to give back to the community it serves with holiday programs that spread cheer and goodwill. 

One California body shop continues to give back to the community it serves with holiday programs that spread cheer and goodwill. 

G&C Auto Body in Santa Rosa, Calif., has a "Meter Beater" Christmas campaign that helps feed expired parking meters, and also a Secret Santa program and food collection that has helped supply gifts and food for local charities in the area.

Meter Beaters

Traditionally G&C has always done its “Meter Beater” program, which began over 20 years ago. It started when owner and founder Gene Crozat received a parking ticket while doing his Christmas shopping. Realizing that people were so caught up in shopping that they didn’t always have time or would forget to refill their parking meters, Gene decided to hire a group of high school kids to carry bags filled with quarters to pay people's expired or low meters. Throughout December, it is common in downtown Santa Rosa to see young people wearing G&C sweatshirts and Santa hats filling meters up and down the streets, but it didn’t end there.

Understanding how fortunate they were for such great community support of their business, G&C ownership decided that they wanted to look for other ways to impact the community and help out, so they connected with the Volunteer Center for Sonoma County to help out with their “Secret Santa” and bicycle giveaway programs. 

For the last three years, G&C employees have gotten together to assemble bicycles and put together Christmas hearts with a person’s name and Santa wish listed on them. The hearts are then hung on Christmas trees in every G&C lobby for the employees and guests to select and be a Secret Santa for that person. The gifts are dropped off at the G&C location and later picked up by the volunteer center to distribute. To date, G&C has help to provide 4,000 Secret Santa wishes and assembled 365 bikes for the volunteer center. 

G&C is also proud to help out the Redwood Empire and other local food banks every year with food barrels in every location throughout the holidays and by also having organized volunteer days for which the employees attend at the food bank every quarter to help out. In the last two years, G&C has helped collect 73 barrels of food for local food banks. 

Currently G&C Auto Body is a corporate sponsor for both the Redwood Empire Food Bank and the Sonoma County Volunteer Center.

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